Chess and Shogi – GM Alexander Chernin in Japan

5/4/2012 – It is astonishing that Japan, the third largest economy on the planet, with a population of 127 million, ranks at a paltry 92th on FIDE's chess world rankings, just behind Monaco. On the other hand the national version of chess, Shogi, is played by millions. Jacques-Marie Pineau has tried to rectify the situation by inviting a strong GM and trainer to motivated students – with resounding success.

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GM Alexander Chernin in Japan

Report by Jacques-Marie Pineau from Kawagoe, Japan

A few years ago, sensing my own limits, I introduced my chess student from
Japan, Toshiyuki Moriuchi, to grandmaster and acclaimed chess coach Alexander
Chernin. They were soon on friendly terms: GM Chernin taught the importance
of pawn structure and positional play to Moriuchi in Budapest six years ago,
and gave some lessons to Yoshiharu Habu last October shortly before another
event held at my friend (and French Chess Federation President) Henri Carvallo's
Villandry Castle, during which French Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave faced
both Habu and Moriuchi simultaneously. Moriuchi lost and Habu drew, but both
put a lot of fight, and until the very end all results might been possible.
GM Chernin was already there to help me to comment the games. We
reported recently about this event.

Alexander Mikhailovich Chernin, Ukrainian GM and a former Soviet Champion

Following these intriguing exchanges, I began to entertain the thought of inviting
GM Chernin to Japan, and have him share his deep positional chess understanding
with the small but dedicated local chess community. Especially when Chernin
and his wife said to me their dream to come in Japan.

The GM and his wife in Japan

As you probably know, Japan has its own, very popular, version of chess called
shogi. Shogi has officially a 400-year history and is considered a traditional
art much like tea ceremony or Ikebana. But Shogi is also very contemporary and
popular played by millions of Japanese including a few hundred professional
players, the best among whom are regarded as celebrities. Yoshiharu Habu and
Toshiyuki Moriuchi are respectively the 19e and 18e Lifetime Meijins.

Yoshiharu Habu, 19e Lifetime Meijin in Shogi

This title is disputed each year and award to the best professional –
it is like winning a World Championship match in western chess. To become a
Lifetime Meijin you have to win it five times. Emanuel Lasker, Mikhail Botvinnik,
Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov would be Lifetime Meijins of chess. Incidentally
Habu and Moriuchi are also among the very best chess players in Japan, performing
steadily at IM level, despite of having had little time and few opportunities
to hone their skills.

As hinted above, a feature of most Japanese chess players' style is that their
tactical ability is more developed than their positional sense. One anecdote
illustrates this point beautifully. About fifteen years ago I showed shogi champions
(then chess beginners) Habu and Moriuchi the game Kasparov-Kramnik, Dos Hermanas,
in 1996 – a tense game which the young Kramnik won. As I was going through
the moves they interrupted me before the end with a shocking question: "Wait,
can't Black mate here?" In just a few seconds, they had seen the mate in
four which the very talented Kramnik missed, opting instead for a more practical
ending.

Here Kramnik played 29...Qh1+ 30.Ke2 Rxe4+ 31.Kd2 Qg2+ 32.Kc1 Qxa2
33.Rxg3 Qa1+ 34.Kc2 Qc3+ 35.Kb1 Rd4 and winning. But he missed a mate
in four in the diagram position, which the Shogi masters immediately spotted
– and which our chess specialists will hopefully also find.

Although I knew that shogi is tactically more complex than chess, this caught
me completely by surprise. Conversely, the fact that shogi players have some
difficulty to grasp positional play can in part be explained by the fact that
there is no pawn structure in shogi. The first man who developed a theory from
a chess practice the 18th century, chess champion Philidor from France, would
likely turn into his grave should he witness a game of shogi!

When considering how Japanese people can excel at highly complex games, it
is quite astonishing to note that in spite of being the third largest economy
on the planet, Japan with a population of 127 million people ranks at a paltry
92th place on FIDE's chess world ranking list, just behind Monaco. Quite a disheartening
thought – also on a personal level, since for the last 25 years or so
I have tried to promote chess to Japan, founding two clubs, one in the Tokyo
suburb of Asaka, the other at the French Embassy the at French Institute of
Tokyo. I have also been teaching chess in schools, writing several books in
Japanese, and training two of the most famous shogi players and friends Habu
and Moriuchi of the Japan Shogi Renmei (Federation of Professional Players)
for the past ten years. Against this rather difficult backdrop, I am deeply
grateful to my friend grandmaster Chernin and his wife, for accepting to devote
part of their recent vacation to Japan to promote chess in this country. Here
follows a brief account of their stay.

Chess lecture and simultaneous exhibition in Asaka Chess Club

The purpose of this event was to be accessible to a large audience of chess
players of different generations and playing strength. This opportunity was
so well-received among Japanese chess community that some players came especially
from Niigata, situated 350 km from Tokyo, just to meet the GM.

The lecture was on how to weaken a kingside castle and how to make use of it,
showing the logical and historical bacground of the famous Fischer vs Myagmarsuren
during Itz of Sousse, in 1967.

After the lecture Chernin played a 25 board simul, conceding only three
draws

Chess lecture in Kaisei High School

I think it is safe to say that this was the first time a chess grandmaster
ever gave a lecture in a school in Japan. Kaisei High School is one the most
famous schools in Tokyo. Considering chess as very formative for young people,
I suggested inviting pupils from other schools as well. For some of them it
was a very first occasion to even see chess pieces, let alone a GM such as Chernin.
After the lecture, the famous poet and chess fan Matsuura decided to draw a
team among these students from the different schools. Here is the game they
played with Chernin, who of course played the Pirc Defence. I encouraged the
students to buy "Pirc Alert", the invaluable book which he wrote with
GM Alburt. This book have the educational virtue to teach ideas to different
level.

Chernin with the students of the most famous Tokyo high schools: Kaisei,
Azabu, Gyosei, Osyukan

– Part two to follow soon –

Previous ChessBase articles on Shogi

Chess-playing Japanese Shogi champions15.04.2012 – The Japanese chess variant Shogi
is the most popular board game in the country. In recent years some of
its greatest contemporary champions have started taking up chess, and
two intersting experiments were recently conducted: a top GM played a
chess simul against two Shogi masters, and the top Shogi champion a three-board
Shogi handicap against chess masters. Illustrated
report with games.

Garry Kasparov – taking up Shogi?01.04.2008 – It was an interesting experiment:
the former World Champion has, after his retirement from chess, tried
his hand at the Japanese version of the game. Shogi is played on a 9 by
9 uncheckered board with flat wedge-shaped pieces with Kanji characters
written on them. In his very first game Kasparov came ominously close
to humiliating a three-dan player. Report
and game.

800 Wins at 32 Years Old!?25.02.2003 – It's chess all right, but Japanese
chess, or shogi. The popular sport has its own icon, Yoshiharu Habu, whose
games are regularly on TV in Japan. On Sunday Habu became, at 32, the
youngest player ever to reach 800 career victories, breaking the record
by six months. Kasparov has yet to reach that number in competitive play.
More..

Joel Lautier's Shogi simul06.11.2002 – He is by his own admittance a
"patzer-level" Shogi player. But chess grandmaster Joel Lautier, whose
mother is Japanese, recently took on three of the best Shogi players in
Japan in a clock simul. In chess naturally. It was not, however, a trivial
task. Japan's top Shogi player, Yoshiharu Habu, is of IM strength. More

When a Shogi champion turns to chess17.05.2002 – Michael Jordan tried it with baseball
– it, like, didn't work out. But what about a professional Shogi champion
switching to chess? Yoshiharu Habu, one of the most gifted players in
the history of the ancient Japanese game, has taken a casual interest
in chess – and already reached IM strength. He is currently playing in
a tournament in Paris, where Joel
Lautier interviewed him.

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